疏穗嵩草 shu sui song cao

Elyna laxa (Nees) Kunth; Hemicarex laxa (Nees) Bentham; Kobresia pseudolaxa C. B. Clarke; Schoenoxiphium laxum (Nees) K. V. Ivanova.

Rhizomes shortly elongated. Basal sheaths few, pale to dark brown, dull, retaining dried leaf blades or not. Culms loosely tufted, obscurely trigonous, (4-)13-35 cm tall, slender, ca. 1 mm in diam. Leaves sub-basal, shorter than culms; blade flat, 1.4-4 mm wide, midrib distinct abaxially. Inflorescence a loose or sometimes slightly compact panicle, reddish brown, linear or oblong, 3.5-8 × 1-1.5 cm; inflorescence branches all similar in length, curving outward, lower branches again branched; lowest involucral bract leaflike, sometimes surpassing inflorescence. Inflorescence branches usually androgynous in upper part of inflorescence, those in lower part usually female, sometimes whole inflorescence composed of primarily male or primarily female spikelets; spikelets unisexual; glumes reddish brown, with green midvein, narrowly ovate or oblong, 3.5-5 × 1-1.4 mm, midvein narrow, margin broadly hyaline, apex aristate, acute, or rounded. Prophylls pale green, utriculiform, linear or linear-lanceolate, sometimes slightly curved, (3.5-)4.5-6.6 × 0.5-0.8 mm, membranous, 2-keeled, keels slightly scabrid, margins fused to apex or free in upper half. Nutlets pale yellow or brown, narrowly oblong or elliptic-oblong, trigonous, 2.5-3 × 0.4-0.6 mm, slightly beaked. Rachilla in female spikelets longer than nutlet, exserted from or included in prophyll, green, flat, margins scabrid. Stigmas 3. Fl. and fr. May-Jul.

Moist meadows, on wet rocks; 2200-3700 m. Xizang [Afghanistan, India (Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim), Kashmir, Nepal, Pakistan, Tajikistan].